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Christmas and Christ's Sacrifice
K.P. Yohannan

K.P. Yohannan (1950 - 2024). Indian-American missionary, author, and founder of GFA World, born in Niranam, Kerala, to a St. Thomas Syrian Christian family. Converted at eight, he joined Operation Mobilization at 16, serving eight years in India. In 1974, he moved to the U.S., graduating from Criswell College with a B.A. in Biblical Studies, and was ordained, pastoring a Native American church near Dallas. In 1979, he and his German-born wife, Gisela, founded Gospel for Asia (now GFA World), emphasizing native missionaries, growing to support thousands in the 10/40 Window. Yohannan authored over 250 books, including Revolution in World Missions, with 4 million copies printed, and broadcast Athmeeya Yathra in 113 Asian languages. In 1993, he founded Believers Eastern Church, becoming Metropolitan Bishop as Moran Mor Athanasius Yohan I in 2018. Married with two children, he faced controversies over financial transparency, including a 2015 Evangelical Council expulsion and 2020 Indian tax raids. His ministry impacted millions through Bible colleges, orphanages, and wells.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the significance of Christmas and the purpose behind Christ's incarnation. They highlight the awe-inspiring scene of the birth of Jesus, with God the Father, the Holy Spirit, angels, and the entire creation watching their Creator in the manger. The speaker encourages the audience to deeply contemplate the meaning of Christmas and to appreciate the grace and forgiveness that God has provided through Jesus' birth and death on the cross. They emphasize the importance of living as Christ lived and suffering as he suffered, in order to spread the message of Christmas and bring more people to understand its true meaning. The sermon references the Gospel of John, specifically chapter 1, verse 14, which states that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, highlighting the profound mystery of God becoming man.
Sermon Transcription
Turn your Bibles, if you will please, to the Gospel of Saint John, Chapter 1. Saint John, Chapter 1, Verse 14. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. The Word became flesh, God became man. Christmas, the two events in history since Adam and Eve, that forever, ever qualified by not time but eternity, will never be erased and changed. And one is, there is a man in heaven who was spirit, God ye cannot see, ye cannot touch. But now, there is a man sitting in heaven. The God, the Almighty, who came to this earth by the means of the daughter of Eve, who was human 100%. And God chose to come into the world, the uniting of the tangible, the touchable, the humanity, and now expressed with flesh. The mystery of godliness is great that He became flesh. And that is the uniqueness of Christmas. The God who was distant and separated cannot approach, He dwells in light, no man can approach. And finally, now we can touch Him. We have seen His glory. Time will not permit us to explain that. Simple words, we saw actually God with our eyes. And this is the revelation, the understanding, the meaning of Christ coming into the world. Redeeming not only our spirit but our mind being transformed and finally our earthen vessels, the body that is going to be transformed just as the man in heaven, the God-man, Jesus Christ. And so, what better way than taking time to think this little baby that was born just like any other little babies, thinking about what God the Father was thinking, the Holy Spirit, the third person, the Holy Trinity, thinking, watching, and the multiplied billions of angels and archangels and the entire creation watching their creator in the manger. But just as Mary was given the insight, how much more the heaven understood what this baby was about. So, this kind of exercise is not easy sometimes to think deep and then apply to our own personal life and behavior. And may the Lord give us the grace to appreciate with understanding the meaning of Christmas. Yes, we rejoice in it because doomed forever, destined to perish in hell, God gave us the means to be forgiven and to be spared and saved and more than that to become his sons and daughters. But then too, his incarnation had a purpose in it. And so, through his death on the cross, we are born again, new beginnings. And may we go forth from here, carrying this message. And we do that by living as he lived and suffering as he suffered. And so that next day of this time, how many more millions will have come to know the meaning of Christmas and the reason for Christmas. Amen.
Christmas and Christ's Sacrifice
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K.P. Yohannan (1950 - 2024). Indian-American missionary, author, and founder of GFA World, born in Niranam, Kerala, to a St. Thomas Syrian Christian family. Converted at eight, he joined Operation Mobilization at 16, serving eight years in India. In 1974, he moved to the U.S., graduating from Criswell College with a B.A. in Biblical Studies, and was ordained, pastoring a Native American church near Dallas. In 1979, he and his German-born wife, Gisela, founded Gospel for Asia (now GFA World), emphasizing native missionaries, growing to support thousands in the 10/40 Window. Yohannan authored over 250 books, including Revolution in World Missions, with 4 million copies printed, and broadcast Athmeeya Yathra in 113 Asian languages. In 1993, he founded Believers Eastern Church, becoming Metropolitan Bishop as Moran Mor Athanasius Yohan I in 2018. Married with two children, he faced controversies over financial transparency, including a 2015 Evangelical Council expulsion and 2020 Indian tax raids. His ministry impacted millions through Bible colleges, orphanages, and wells.